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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The one-day workshop, which teaches students how to stuff dead mice and pose them up as if they were humans, is becoming a popular pastime in New York.

White-haired mice styled in tutus and polka dot hair bows; their spindly paws strumming miniature guitars - even reading the New York Times - were photographed in Ms Jeiven's class

An educator and tattoo artist, [Sue Jeiven] begins the four-hour lesson handing out the lifeless little creatures, having sucked out their blood with a syringe beforehand. A statement on the class website warns only feeder mice are used for the arts and crafts session.

But strange or morbid as it might seem to some, anthropomorphic taxidermy – the practice of mounting and displaying taxidermied animals as if they were humans or engaged in human activities – has a long and storied history, beginning with the most privileged classes.

It was a popular art form during the Victorian and Edwardian eras; the best known practitioner of the art form being British taxidermist Walter Potter, whose works included The Kitten Wedding and The Kitten Tea Party, which the mind immediately wants to imagine.

--"Is this the most bizarre art project ever? Taxidermy class teaches students how to stuff dead mice and pose them up 'as if they were humans'" Jennifer Madison, The Daily Mail

For anyone looking for that extra-authentic flavour to their fireplace display, Susan Jeiven's anthropomorphic taxidermy class might just the class you're looking for.

At the Morbid Academy, as Jeiven calls it, about 20 students learn to transform the bodies of dead white mice into human-like pantomimes.In one example, a white mouse holds a miniature classical guitar. In another, a mouse wearing a pink bow on its head reads a tiny facsimile of the New York Times.

There are mice and men and, thanks to a macabre hobby, there are also mice that look like men.

Bent over tables in a room in an industrial corner of Brooklyn, about 20 New Yorkers use scalpels to slice into dead white mice, the first step in the animals’ unlikely journey toward an afterlife spent in human poses and dolls’ clothing.

Anthropomorphic taxidermy is an art form that became hugely popular in Britain in the 19th century, with Queen Victoria herself a fan. Now, as with many odd activities, it has found new life in Brooklyn.

Congratulations to Sue Jeiven--our amazing anthropomorphic taxidermy teacher--for the recent flurry of international press surrounding her oft-sold out class excerpted above. You can read the whole Daily Mail article--from which all of the images and first excerpt above are drawn--by clicking here, the CBC News article by clicking here, and the Ottawa Citizen article by clicking here.

I am also very pleased to announce that we just added five new classes to our roster, and four of those still have vacancies. If you are interested in learning more--or better yet, signing up for one of Sue's incredible classes--click here. To find out more about the "Morbid Academy" Sue refers to (we call it The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy), click here. To watch a short video about Sue and her work, click here.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A group of forensic anthropologists have completed a meticulous analysis of a set of real human anatomy displays from 19C Italy. Using CT scans and other chemical analysis, the group determined that, some 200 years ago, anatomist Giovan Battista Rini "petrified" the corpses with a mercury and other heavy metals. He injected some tinctures and used others as baths. The eyes are fake. Basically, Rini was modern medicine's first "Body Worlds" guy.--The Terrifying Body Worlds Mummy Heads of 19C Italy, Gakwer

Ok. So although this Gawker story has a MAJOR inaccuracy--Giovan Battista Rini was hardly "medicine's first 'Body Worlds' guy;" that honor would surely go to Honoré Fragonard and his incredible Anatomical Ecorchés from the 18th century--its still nice to see anatomical preparations discussed and pictured in the mainstream media. Read more about the recent CT scan analysis on preparations from the 19th century collection of anatomist Giovan Battista Rini pictured above here and here. Images by Dario Piombino-Mascali, EURAC, and Clinical Anatomy/Wiley via National Geographic article; click here to see more.

This weekend--February 25th and 26th--the Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will be hosting open, no-appointment-necessary drop in hours from 1 to 6. So feel free to drop in for a perusal of the stacks and to meet our latest addition.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Musaeum Clausum (the hidden library) is a fake catalogue of a collection that contained books, pictures, and artefacts. Such collections (and their elaborate indices) were a common phenomenon from about 1500 to 1700 and after. Gentlemen and the nobility collected as a matter of polite engagement with knowledge and as a way of displaying wealth and learning; savants made arrays of plants, animals, and minerals as museums or ‘thesauruses’ of the natural world to record and organise their findings; imperial and monarchical collections were princely in their glamour, rarity, and sheer expenditure: these might contain natural-historical specimens but also trinkets and souvenirs from far-flung places, curiosities of nature and art, and historically significant items. For example, taxidermically preserved basilisks shared room with a thorn from Christ’s crown and feathered headdresses and weapons belonging to native American tribes. Browne takes these traditions of assemblage and makes a catalogue of marvellous things that have disappeared...

Read the whole fascinating article about fake catalogues of fictional collections--a common trope, as the article explains, from around 1500 to 1700--on the Public Domain Review website by clicking here.

Image: Engraving from the Dell'Historia Naturale (1599) showing Naples apothecary Ferrante Imperato's cabinet of curiosities, the first pictorial representation of such a collection.

Despite being among the finest early nineteenth-century macabre-themed paintings, Théodore Géricault’s various versions of still lifes with human body parts have remained little known and commented upon. Géricault is best remembered as a pioneering French Romantic and the auteur of the massive Raft of the Medusa [see bottom image]—an over-life-sized painting of the survivors of a shipwreck which had been a tabloid sensation in France in the 1810s. While Géricault’s public personae was that of a hard-living, chaotic, and tempestuous personality, as an artist he maintained an often obsessive dedication. The ship known as the Medusa sank in June of 1816, and Géricault soon began preparatory studies for his painted version, including interviews with survivors, and the construction of a scale model of the raft on which they escaped.

At the same time, Géricault also became increasingly interested in the naturalistic rendering of distressed anatomy, and started making frequent trips to morgues—in particular, that of the Hospital Beaujon in Paris. Initially these trips were intended simply to sketch body parts, but Géricault eventually found beauty in the severed limbs and heads he was studying, and began rendering them as subjects in their own right. At the time, there were programs in local morgues to lend human remains to art students for anatomical study—something like a lending library of body parts. Géricault would take them home to study them as they went through states of decomposition. He was known to stash various heads, arms, and legs under his bed—or alternately store them on his roof—so he could continue to render them in increasingly putrid states and in various angles. The upper torso in the so-called Head of a Guillotined Man in the Art Institute of Chicago (the title is misleading—the head is not guillotined) is one of those which is recognizable from multiple paintings, and is believed to be a thief who died in the insane asylum of Bicêtre; Géricault painted this head from multiple viewpoints over the two week period he kept it in his studio. In particular, the artist seems to have been fascinated by the subtle gradations of color body parts attained as they rotted.

He delighted in playing the morbid tones of putrefying flesh against a warm chiaroscuro which fades into a dark background and seems timeless and quiet, giving these anatomical fragments a presence that is almost iconic. Géricault made frequent jokes about the reaction of his neighbors to this kind of study—not surprisingly, they were displeased, especially with the smell emanating from his studio. Most of these paintings date to the later half of the 1810s. They were apparently entirely for the artist’s own edification—they were not sold to collectors, and most remained in his studio when he died at the age of 32 in 1824, and were offered as lots in his estate sale.

Perhaps the reason that Géricault’s still lifes with body parts have so frequently been overlooked is that they seem to defy interpretation, or lack any kind of editorial intent on the part of the artist. In that sense, they have always seemed perverse. Other, contemporary Romantic artists won great fame for their macabre scenes, but those scenes provide a context to guide the viewer’s reaction. In the Disasters of War by Goya, for example, severed body parts are placed within a moralizing relationship of cause and effect—war produces casualties, and the viewer is invited to disapprove of war itself as futile and barbaric. In various versions of the paintingNightmare by Henri Fuseli, macabre motifs such as demons are menacing, implying the threat of paralysis and loss of free will. But Géricault’s version of the macabre lacks this kind of interpretive framework—he presents his dismembered remains to the viewer simply as collections of objects, nothing more. His insistence on depriving his body parts of any identifiable context has ensured that they remain elusive, and thus marginalized in the history of art. But it is this same lack of context which has preserved them as unique objects of beauty.

To find out more about Paul's work, you can visit his website by clicking here; you can purchase a copy of his book (highly recommended!) from the Morbid Anatomy Giftshop by clicking here. Paul will also be participating in this years's iteration of The Congress for Curious People at The Coney Island Museum, so stay tuned for more on that!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

This Sunday--February 19th--the Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will be hosting open, no-appointment-necessary drop in hours from 12:30 to 6. So feel free to drop in for a perusal of the stacks and to meet our latest addition.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Hope to see you at our lunar themed Observatory double header tomorrow and Saturday night! Full details follow.

The Moon and Its Closest Associates: A 3-D Slideshow with 3-D Legend Gerald MarksDate: Friday, February 17Time: 8:00Admission: $5Presented by Morbid Anatomy

The Moon and its relationship to our earth has been a prominent feature in the work of artist Gerald Marks for the past four decades. Tonight, join this 3-D legend and former San Francisco Exploratorium artist in residence for an all 3-D ode to our dear satellite. Some of the images premiered at Marks' 2000 presentation at the American Museum of Natural history as part of their "Rockets in Sprockets" festival, honoring the first anniversary of the new Rose Center for Earth & Space. Also included will be Marks’ panoramic 3-D images of New York City, taken during the January 2001 Lunar Eclipse, from the top of the World Trade Center.

Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D since 1973. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D within the MFA program in Computer Art. He was artist in residence at San Francisco's Exploratorium and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich's Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including the Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing & Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing & design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has created a large variety of 3-D artwork for advertising, display, and pharmaceutical use, as well as broadcast organizations Fox and MTV. He has designed award winning projections and sets at the N.Y. Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet, where he created stereoscopically projected sets. He created the 3-D mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train in New York City’s subway. He did 3-D imaging of dance around the New York shoreline as part of an iLAB grant from the iLAND Foundation for using the arts to raise environmental consciousness.

Image: "Moon Viewing," from the series "Artistic, Aesthetic and Poetic Tastes of the Japanese," by Gerald Marks, as featured in our current Lunation exhibition. Put on 3-D glasses for full experience.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A special thank you to journalist Tanja M. Laden for writing such a lovely Huffington Post piece about the Morbid Anatomy photo projects The Secret Museum and Anatomical Theatre. Check it out--and vote on your favorite images in the slideshow!--by clicking here. The winning image thus far is shown above. Who knew?

Throughout his life, Max was outspokenly opposed to the practice of vivisection (dissection of living animals), that was common at the time for scientific research. A famous painting, The Vivisector comments on this (seen above). He depicts a contemplative doctor with Lady Justice standing behind him. Her scales contain a brain and a heart, with the heart weighing heavier. Max died in 1915 in Munich.

Monday, February 13, 2012

I am pleased to announce an exhibition showcasing the collection of friend-of-Morbid Anatomy Richard Harris--one of the foremost collectors of all things death related--on view through July 8 at the Chicago Cultural Center. This looks to me amazing; full info follows, from the press release:

Chicago Cultural Center Brings Death To Life In Unprecedented New ExhibitionMorbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris CollectionJanuary 28 – July 8, 2012

CHICAGO (November 2, 2011) – A deadly obsession takes hold of the Chicago Cultural Center this winter when one of its largest exhibitions to date, Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection, opens Saturday, January 28, 2012.

Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection showcases the wild and wonderfully eclectic selection of nearly 1,000 works of fine art, artifacts, massive installations and decorative objects, including creations by many of the greatest artists of our time, that explore the iconography of death across a variety of artistic, cultural and spiritual practices from 2000 B.C.E. to the present day.

Richard Harris, a resident of Riverwoods, Ill. who has been an art collector for 40 years, has gathered his provocative collection from all corners of the world to share with Chicago. Morbid Curiosity will fill two exhibition spaces, the 4th floor Exhibit Hall and Sidney R. Yates Gallery, at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., and will run through Sunday, July 8, 2012.

“We are all born to die. The questions that fascinate me are how we will die, where will we die and when will we die,” said Richard Harris. “At the age of 74, I believe it is incumbent upon me to make my collection a paean to death in all its many visages.”

The two major components of this exhibition are the “War Room,” highlighting the atrocities of war in notable works from the 17th century to present day in the 4th floor Exhibit Hall; and the “Kunstkammer of Death,” a modern-day “cabinet of curiosities” housed in the Sidney R. Yates Gallery, featuring a wide-ranging survey of mortality across cultures and spiritual traditions. The centerpiece of the “War Room” is Mr. Harris’ rare collection of five great war series, featuring prints by Jacques Callot, Francisco Goya, Otto Dix, the Chapman Brothers and Sandow Birk, which he has acquired over the past 30 years. This exhibition marks the first time that all five series will be exhibited together in their entirety.

“The scope, quality and diversity of Mr. Harris’ collection is unprecedented,” said Michelle T. Boone, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. “Morbid Curiosity will fill two gallery spaces on the 4th floor to cover a total of 14,000 sq. ft. during its six-month run, making it one of our largest and longest-running exhibitions to date.” “We look forward to hosting an exciting array of music, theater and art programming in conjunction with the exhibition, further engaging the public in a conversation about difficult themes that continue to fascinate humankind,” added Commissioner Boone.

“War Room”Mr. Harris presents his rare collection of five great war series, arguably the most remarkable interpretations of war in art, evoking the ongoing cycle of human cruelty and destruction over centuries. Chronologically, the first of the series features Jacques Callot’s 17th century Miseries of War prints, followed by Francisco Goya’s extraordinary 18th century Disasters of War. The two masterpieces of the 20th century include Otto Dix’s Der Kreig and Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Disasters of War, both of which are heavily influenced by Goya. Completing the series is the 21st century The Depravities of War by Sandow Birk featuring massive woodblock prints depicting the Iraq war.

“Kunstkammer of Death”The Italianate Sidney R. Yates Gallery will have its own distinct flavor within the exhibition as it is transformed into the style of a 17th century “Kunstkammer of Death.” (“Kunstkammer” is the precursor of the Public Museum as we know of them today. One of the greatest examples of a Kunstkammer was established by Peter the Great in Russia in 1727. Peter’s museum was a “cabinet of curiosities” dedicated to preserving natural and human curiosities and artistic rarities from across the globe as a means of acquiring a comprehensive knowledge of the world.) Featured in the “Kunstkammer of Death” will be works that explore death in all aspects from the spiritual to the scientific. Incredible works by such artists as Laurie Lipton, Chicago artist Marcos Raya and the Argentinean collective, Mondongo, bring to life the Mexican Holiday, Day of the Dead. Additionally, the gallery will be filled with a vast assortment of artistic styles and genres including the Dance of Death, a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death and Vanitas, a type of art that employs symbolic elements, such as hourglasses, rotting fruit and skulls, to signify the brevity of life.

Breathtaking 13 ft. high chandelier made of 3,000 handcrafted plaster bones by contemporary British artist Jodie Carey. The piece directly engages the viewer with the irony or contradictions implicit in the decay/beauty aesthetic.

Visually stunning large-scale installation, “Tribute,” from Guerra de la Paz entirely built from colorful used clothing that commemorates the Holocaust.

Ethnographic artifacts and art from other cultures, particularly Tibet, Mexico, Africa and New Guinea.

“Ironically, the object that best personifies my own curiosity towards the subject of death can be seen in a 1927 photograph that is probably the least expensive object in the collection, costing me $5,” said Mr. Harris. “It is a photograph of a woman named Phebe Clijde surrounded by friends in the backyard of Phebe’s home in the suburbs of San Diego. In this neighborly scene, Phebe is holding a human skull. ‘What could she be thinking? Who’s skull is this? How did the person die?’ are some of the questions that ignite Phebe’s and my curiosity.”

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A new episode of The Midnight Archive--the web-based documentary series centered aroundObservatory--has just been uploaded and can be viewed above. In this episode we learn about--and view in graphic and gorgeous detail!--the Diableries, Victorian hand-colored stereo views depicting daily life in hell and peopled with skeletons, lovely ladies, and the devil himself, and in infernal colors and glorious 3D.

The creator of The Midnight Archive--Film-maker and many-time Observatory lecturer Ronni Thomas--says about this episode:

This episode brings this whole series and experience full circle. In a lot of ways, the topic here--‘Death and Devils in 3D’--is what brought me to this even bigger world. A few years back, I’d given my first ‘lecture’ at Observatory at the request of my friend Joanna. Assuming nobody would show up, I agreed and was promptly shocked and inspired by just how amazing the turnout had been. All to see my collection of 19th century 3D devil tissues... And more than that--the crowd was a delightful mixed bag. From Mensa to Princeton to the street punks and dregs, from the curious to the satanic... Truly inspiring. And so here is my own entry into the archive--please be kind--I hate being on camera but, what the “Hell”... I’m particularly proud of the way we treated the slides. The idea was to give more of the 3D/color effect to the Diableries than simple scans would give you. My ultimate dream is to film the entire series in 3D and set it to music (wink wink at the Real Tuesday Weld)--kept it brief and informal--I am aware of a very comprehensive book currently in the works on the series being done in part by Brian May (Queen’s guitar player and avid stereoscopic fan) so keep your eyes opened! Enjoy!

For more on the series, to see former episodes, or to sign up for the mailing list and thus be alerted to future uploads, visit The Midnight Archive website by clicking here. You can also "like" it on Facebook--and be alerted in this way--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory by clicking here. You can find out more about Roni Thomas by clicking here.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Just a reminder; for those of you in the greater Los Angeles area,I would love to see you the night after tomorrow atThe Velaslavasay Panorama, where I will be giving a lecture entitled "Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig: A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum." The images above--drawn from my recent photo exhibitions The Secret Museum and Anatomical Theatre--constitute a tiny sampling of the many images I will be showing in the presentation.

Full details follow; very much hope very much to see you there.

Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig:A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical MuseumAn Illustrated Lecture by Joanna Ebenstein_______

The Velaslavasay Panorama welcomes photographer and researcher Joanna Ebenstein, who will be here Thursday, February 9th at 8 pm to present an illustrated lecture entitled Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig: A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum. Abounding with images and insight, Ms. Ebenstein’s lecture will introduce you to the Medical Museum and its curious denizens, from the Anatomical Venus to the Slashed Beauty, the allegorical fetal skeleton tableau to the taxidermied bearded lady, the flayed horseman of the apocalypse to the three fetuses dancing a jig. Ebenstein will discuss the history of medical modeling, survey the great artists of the genre, and examine the other death-related arts and amusements which made up the cultural landscape at the time that these objects were originally created, collected, and exhibited.

Joanna Ebenstein is a New York-based artist and independent researcher. She runs the popular Morbid Anatomy Blog and the related Morbid Anatomy Library, where her privately held cabinet of curiosities and research library are made available by appointment. Her work has been shown and published internationally, and she has lectured at museums and conferences around the world. For more information, visit http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com

Tickets available here. You can find out more about the lecture on Flavorpill and in The LA Weekly. You can find out more about the panorama (one of my favorite spots in LA! highly recommended!) by clicking here.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I would like to cordially invite each and every one of you to our upcoming lunar-themed Observatory anniversary/fundraiser party! A few things you should know: The charming Lord Whimsy will be on hand to MC! Giveaways will be provided by Kikkerland! Libations served up compliments of La Fée Absinthe! Viewings of The Midnight Archive! And music, too.